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Folks who break the DRM on their #Kindle books, this is going to make that a lot harder: https://nsinteger.com/@zacwest/113991537960396621
This is fine for those of us who don't buy from Amazon anymore, but if you have a standing library with them, make sure you get it all downloaded so you can break it. It's frustrating because you can't bulk download - I keep finding titles I own but missed grabbing somehow - but you have until Feb 26th to get them all.
(1/2)
(2/2) Also here's a great guide to breaking that DRM of your Kindle books! (See post before this on why you should do it now rather than wait)
Folks dealing with the Amazon Kindle nonsense (see the two posts above), if you're struggling with breaking the DRM via Calibre, you may be tempted to check out this site: epubor.com
Before you do, you might want to go to Reddit and do a search for "Epubor", and read a few posts for info. Some folks said it worked, but there are some unhappy people including at least one who claimed it downloaded a virus.
@hollie thanks for the heads up! I started downloading my books recently but it’s such a hassle! On purpose of course. Will prioritize this now.
@kimu Yeah, I assume they make it a hassle on purpose. Well, alternatives are getting better all the time so I'm hoping this will mean more and more people say goodbye to them!
@hollie Thanks for the info about Kindle books. I've just downloaded around 330 books of the 780 I've bought on Amazon and added them to Calibre with the De-DRM plugin active. Calibre is a great way to organise the books too. Wish I'd done that years ago. Nice to know I could now read those books on other devices if I chose. Also, although Kindle seems such a fixture, it could easily just go away. 
@Miraz Oh yay, so glad you got them! :D
It felt so nice to break mine, made them really feel like MINE. I can do what I want with them.
@hollie Thanks for the warning! My kindle has been acting up and I keep having to reboot it, seems like it will die pretty soon.
I've found a different brand of ebook reader that I'll like better and plan to buy by the time that happens, and I'd like to still be able to read my ebooks that I paid for and theoretically own--but not according to them (which is why I only get ebooks there if I can't get them elsewhere).
I might try to purchase a few more books before then via the "download and transfer" method so i can back them up, sad I won't be able to continue reading some of the series that I like. 
@hollie Yet another reason I am glad not to have an account with Amazon or own a Kindle. If you want me to read something publish it as an open PDF, otherwise I will act as though it had never been written.
I do not own a single paid file
@hollie If you add all of the books to a collection, you should be able to download the collection as a whole using the Kindle desktop app.
@djtoebeans This doesn't work for me? There's no way to bulk add all the books to a collection that I can find, and in the Digital Content section, there's no way to download a collection.
@hollie I was able to select like 25 titles at a time on the website to add them to my collection and then right-click the collection in the Windows app to download everything in it. Still kind of a pain, but easier than downloading one at a time.
@djtoebeans Ahhhh, okay, it's because I'm using a Mac. You can't select more than one in the iMac Kindle app.
@hollie Ohhhh, well that sucks.
@hollie How can we download our library to a laptop? I'm looking at the Amazon website but there's no option to download that I see. I don't have room on my phone for all my books
@3x10to8mps I think if you're logged into Amazon this link should work for you: https://www.amazon.com/hz/mycd/digital-console/contentlist/booksAll/dateDsc/
Basically you go to Manage Your Content and Devices and then select the digital content, and you should see all of your books. Unfortunately I think you have to download them one by one.
There is a work around of downloading the Kindle for PC app. If you do that you can (I believe) still do a Send to Kindle of multiple books at once.
I also recommend installing Calibre to sort them on a computer.
@deirdrebeth @3x10to8mps I'm using an iMac, maybe that's my problem? I can't select more than one book at a time in the Kindle app for the iMac, it's so annoying.
Try the website rather than the app? I've got no Mac knowledge newer than the 1980s so I can't help much!
@3x10to8mps @hollie Click on your Digital Orders under Orders and Returns. Then click Manage Content and Devices next to the book you want. There will be a drop-down menu More Actions.
Click that menu, then you can select Download and transfer via USB which will let you save the file to your laptop's hard drive (or anywhere else you want).
@analogfusion The "download and transfer via USB" only tells me "You do not have any compatible devices registered for this content. Buy a Kindle or get the free Kindle reading app." even though I have the Kindle app on my phone and my PC. I don't seem to be able to download locally. 
@blue @3x10to8mps @hollie That's weird. I wonder if they've already the process of disabling direct downloads.
@analogfusion @hollie @blue The same is true for me. I can't download out of either Kindle on iphone or PC and get the same message from Manage Your Content.
Also there is no help topic on Download and Tranfer vis USB
@3x10to8mps @analogfusion @blue Oh yeah I think you have to own a registered Kindle device, that’s the purpose of the download, it’s to side load them to Kindle devices that may not have WiFi or may have it turned off for some reason.
@hollie Oh! Thanks - that makes sense I guess. Just bought a second hand one on ebay. And found out that I could have had my old one repaired (battery fault and not charging 
) @3x10to8mps @analogfusion
@hollie @3x10to8mps @blue I guess it hadn't occurred to me that someone would own a Kindle but not have it registered, but that certainly would explain the errors people get.
@analogfusion it's also not owning a Kindle device but using the kindle app on mobile or PC, which kind of looks similar (to the system) as having an unregistered device. @hollie @3x10to8mps
@blue @hollie @analogfusion Ok I reinstalled the Kindle app on PC and was able to download my content to a default My Kindle Content folder within my Documents folder. Not via Transfer Using USB
All my purchased books are EBOK.azw, the proprietary Amazon KFX format. I installed the KFX Input plugin.
I can't convert due to DRM
Apparently I need to find and install Kindle for PC v 1.24 or older. I can't find it. I'm going to have to rebuy everything 
@blue @hollie @analogfusion WAIT! I found a solution. Here is a great stepwise how to install the older Kindle, DRM and KFX plugins, with links . It works!
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=361503#google_vignette
@3x10to8mps @blue @analogfusion Did you check that Reddit thread that had links to older versions?
@3x10to8mps @blue @hollie All you need to read and convert those .azw files is Calibre. It's free and runs on pretty much every OS.
@hollie @blue @analogfusion Thanks! I found further directions to handle the Amazon proprietary KFX file format. I got everything into Calibre as epubs
@3x10to8mps @blue @hollie Transfer by USB is a misleading phrase. All you really need to do is download the book files to your hard drive. Then you can use Calibre to manage and transfer to whatever device you want to use.
@hollie Thank you so much for this. I’m going to buy a kobo e reader and transfer all my books asap!
@skatercat Yay! :)
@hollie So I’ve got my library card linked. Next job, transfer Kindle books. Fingers crossed 
@skatercat Good luck! :)
@skatercat @hollie Is that the Libra 2 or the Libra Color? I got a Libra 2 a couple years ago and have been very happy with it. If books you transfer to it have problems displaying graphics elements or if the page counts don't play nice, install the KoboTouchExtended plugin for Calibre and then send the book again.
@whami @hollie It’s a Libra Colour.
Borrowed library books via Libby (Overdrive) work but I can’t get borrowed audio books via Libby.
I tried transferring my kindle books to kobo with Calibre but only six of the 105 books transferred. I tried with epubor ultimate but only received 20% of each book (a trial until I subscribe I found later).
Still a work in progress.
@skatercat @hollie
I haven't used epubor and haven't done anything with audiobooks on the Kobo, so can't help on those.
Regarding only 6 of 105 transferring. that sounds like DRM is still on the majority of them. If you haven't installed the DeDRM plugin, you will need to do that. That plugin is active when books are added to Calibre, so you need to install it first and then import. After that it you should just need to convert them to epub and then send them over.
Here is the article that got me going at first. Ut is very old, but the overall concepts are still mostly the same: https://www.techradar.com/news/software/how-to-remove-ebook-drm-with-calibre-1291960
And here is the latest (I think) version of the plugin:
https://github.com/noDRM/DeDRM_tools/releases/tag/v10.0.3
Good luck.
@skatercat @whami Never give up! Never surrender! :)
@hollie Thanks for the heads-up!
@hollie When I got my Kobo a couple years ago I downloaded everything from my Kindle library (600+) books and got them onto the Kobo. IIRC, I downloaded them all to my existing Kindle device, which you can do in bulk, then plugged the Kindle into my computer and pulled all the books over with Calibre and a DRM plugin. This was a lot faster than individual downloads and shouldn't be impacted by Amazon's change. The only catch is you need a physical Kindle, but you can often find used ones pretty cheap.
@whami Oh thanks! We have an old Kindle, I will try that tomorrow. I really think I oughta have them all, but every so often I still find one that isn’t downloaded.
@hollie I'm really quite sad about this. I love being able to read my Kindle books in Braille without their accessibility crapping out on me every few months or having to daisy-chain devices together.